I love the smoothness of these pencils. They have the consistency of an oil crayon & almost a charcoal pencil,except they don't smudge as easy as charcoal does. The ideas are endless when you have great drawing materials to work with. I always come back home to Dick Blick art supplies to find the greatest deals, & fill my supply wish lists.

I have been working my way through all the available brands of artist grade colored pencils I can find. In reality, any one of them will do the job, but I was curious to see what the differences were among brands, and to find out whether the most expensive pencils were substantially better than the least expensive. I bought a small set of these pencils and based on the very low price was not expecting much. However these are really good. If you are interested in trying colored pencils as an art medium, and don't want to spend a lot of money, these may be the pencil for you.

What I use colored pencils for: quick sketches in a small format sketch book, mixed media drawings in tandem with pastel, water color etc. and amateur botanical drawings. (I don't have experience with adult coloring books and don't use pencils for sharply detailed photo-realist work, so I can't comment on their suitability for those uses).

What I liked: the Kohinoor pencils are oil-based, similar to the more expensive Lyra Polycolor pencils. (As the Kohinoors are also called "Polycolor", this can get a bit confusing). When I compared drawings made by both pencils in a similar color assortment, I couldn't see much difference. The Kohinoors seem medium-hard to me, perhaps a bit harder than the Lyra pencils. The color slips off the pencil easily, without using much pressure. They sharpen well and form a nice sharp point if needed. The wood does not splinter or crack when sharpened. The colors layer nicely when gradually building darks and shadow tones. Although neither brand allows light layers to stand out over dark I don't expect them to - these are pencils after all, not opaque paint. Oil-based pencils work well with wax-based crayons, you can use them together with no problems.

I also liked that the sets are priced so low that you can get a a lot pencils to try out without a big investment. If you want a set, I would not recommend buying the full range set, as some pencil colors are almost duplicates of others. You can always fill in with pencils from other brands if you really need a special color that kohinoor doesn't make.

Dislikes: None as far as quality . The color range could be bigger, but I have other pencils to fill the gaps. This is a good pencil at a cheap price. Despite the price difference, I think the Kohinoors are as good as the more expensive Lyras for my purposes.

I bought these as part of a research project into color pencils for recommending to students. They are definitely a match for my old Berol Prismacolor pencils. These pencils have oil rather than wax in the leads. The colors lay down smoothly with very little pressure and blend nicely. The color range is a match for other sets. It is unfortunate that you cannot purchase individual colors in the US. I have other Koh-I-Noor pencils and these are a good addition.